An episode of the 1950's Television program "Winky Dink and You". Innovative, original, creative and unique. Praised by Microsoft mogul Bill Gates as "the first interactive TV show". That said, without it's original context, it's little more than a historic curiousity, and some viewers may find it very difficult to watch.


This movie is part of the collection: Classic TV

Production Company: Barry & Enright Productions
Audio/Visual: Sound, Black and White
Keywords: Classic TV; Television; 50s; 50's; 1950s; 1950's; Fifties; Pop Culture; Innovative; Unique; Creative;

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Eklectic1again - - March 24, 2013
Subject: Difficult to watch? Yes. And harder to listen to...
I'm trying to imagine the suffering of the adult host presenting this show. Wow.

Interactive, yeah, but I'm glad my childhood missed this one by about ten years. The Shirley Booth sound of the voice would've sent hypersensitive kid me running out of the room. Adults pretending to be children always sounded especially awful to me.

Some things, although clever for their time, are better off lost in the ozone! I'd heard of this show and the magic screen and all, but until now hadn't seen it...understand, I'm truly glad it's here for viewing, historically, but...wow. This thing survived and Ernie Kovacs on DuMont got dumped in the ocean? Just sad, man. A cosmic joke.

Reviewer: Navy Davy - - February 9, 2011
Subject: Old time TV
OMG, I used to watch Winky Dink and [me]
when I was a kid. The plastic screen
was green and it was cohesive -- it stuck
on by itself as long as you wiped the
dust off the screen first. The markers
were crayons but not Crayolas. When
finished you could take your brother's
bankie and wipe off the writing in
preparation for the next day's fun.

One of the founding members of the
Daycare By TV industry.

Reviewer: BoopBoopaddoop - - February 8, 2011
Subject: Very Creative
Very Creative it seems that was the interactive toys of the 50s. now they use all technology but once crayons were the populer items. the voice cast is pretty amazing aswell if i must say so myself with Mae Questel as Winky Dink alongside jack barry.

Reviewer: Earlon - - February 21, 2010
Subject: A catalog site for Classic TV shows
If you like Classic TV from of the 50's, I found a catalog site that makes it easy to find and watch episodes streaming from Archive.org at:

The Classic TV Channel

There are currently over 400 individual episodes of about 30 different programs, and the site is growing day by day. Check it out!

Reviewer: tommyk_tizzo - - August 3, 2009
Subject: Magic Crayons
As I recall the Winky Dink Magic Crayons didn't taste as good as my standard Crayolas but, other than that, this show brought back fond memories.

Reviewer: Seto-Kaiba_Is_Stupid - - June 28, 2009
Subject: Well I'm the Uploader
...and I seriously had a WTF moment reading the previous review. Either somebody is trying to be funny, or the constant watching of Sid Davis films has had an unexpected consequence of mental insanity.

In his defense, I once posted a review forgiving the makers of a show for nuking my grandparents. And I'm not even Japanese!

Reviewer: FP - - June 28, 2009
Subject: Children died because of this show
A transparent plastic overly was affixed to the TV screen for WINKY DINK, so the viewer at home could "participate" in the show by drawing a bridge for Winky to cross, or a cross upon which Winky would be crucified, and so on.

Sometimes children forgot to affix the plastic screen. They would draw directly on the TV glass with the corrosive, permanent WINKY MARKER. In the 1950s, televisions cost (adjusting for 2009 inflation) the equivalent of two hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars. When parents discovered their children had destroyed the household treasure, they often killed their own offspring. It wasn't even a crime until 1958.

A pornographic version of this toy was marketed in the mid-1990s. It was called STINKY PINKY AND YOU and used not only a clear plastic screen, but a number of other rude implements. The product did not catch on, for it was thought, at the time, that pornography was unsuitable for children.

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER claims that due to the success of YO GABBA GABBA, WINKY DINK will return to the "airwaves" in 2010, hosted by Joe Piscopo. The show has been canceled in advance, and it will never air after 64 episodes have been produced.

I can't not wait!